Mayors Ask Dayton To Protect Local Government Aid

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mayors from around Minnesota are telling Gov. Mark Dayton that cuts to local government aid would hurt the ability of their communities to provide public safety, perform needed maintenance and deliver services like libraries and community centers.

Dayton met Wednesday with two dozen mayors and other city leaders at an event arranged by the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. The mayors say over the last decade they’ve had to reduce employees and that priorities like road repairs and infrastructure improvements have suffered.

Dayton has proposed $1.5 billion in state funds so local governments can avoid aid cuts, and says any Republican-backed cuts will result in local property tax increases. Republicans say they’ll release a budget proposal later this month and have rejected Dayton’s proposal to raise income taxes on top earners instead.

Government…ALL government needs to rein in the spending and live within their means. Dayto is a big spending ignorant fool…He has not even mastered Economics 101. He will giving himself another ‘F” soon…because so far his record is a big fat “O”!

Democrats have been brainwashing the youth of our nation through television and schools they theatening the very democratic ideals that our founding fathers fought to preserve! I see them with hands out waiting for the next person to put money in to it. What ever happen to working hard to get ahead! There is no such thing as a free lunch so stop asking for it!

Not a DemoRAT
You should change your name to “lover of Palin’s and Bachmann’s BS” as you are just as stupid as both combined. Never heard such a crock of sh!t like that before. Propoganda like non other, wait, is this Bachmann?

Raising the taxes on the higher income people is needed, it is the only thing that is fair! Plus Dayton has not been in office long enough to even grade him! If he votes for “the people” he has to raise taxes on the richer Minnesotans! Still haven’t heard the politicians are cutting their benefits any! We may have put republicans in office… but that was to keep things on the bargaining level, not to say we wanted them!! They have to learn to give, and take! Start thinking of the better good instead of lining their pockets! I have yet to hear one good thing from any of them and by the way, Pawlenty is why we are where we are!

You said it Deb!! *highfives* People, nowadays, think too much and highly of money. I understand almost everything involves money, but no one can argue that from Christianity views that what should people do when others are in need of their help because they can’t help themselves, under certain circumstances! (Unless, they don’t believe in doing any good)

It’s call, being ethical here!! Money comes and it goes, whether, you worked hard for it or you didn’t, but what good would it do you if you did not use it in a good way? Like helping those in need, no need to give them money but helping them get to where they can be stable in money and etc, that would be great indeed!

And, I don’t understand what point people would prove by living in larger homes, having 6 BUGATTIS and living in MIAMI, FL do them any good anyway, other than, yeah, they’re rich and maybe, stingy, so what??! People SURE know how to spend their money!!

Just saying…People are stingy. If I were as rich as the CEOs, I would spend my money thrifty, bc I know what it’s like to be poor and I’ve learned to value the many things that many people tend to take advantage of nowadays.

Hi Deb, what makes you think you are “entitled” to other peoples hard earned wages. Just because someone makes more than you doesn’t mean they should pay more. Don’t you drive on the roads? Don’t you use every service available? Why do you think you should spend less then the other person. We as a state need to stop spending, period.

Where is the money going to come from? The Republican controlled legislature has vowed not to raise taxes and I believe them. Financial reductions-cuts-are coming to every area of local and state government even though Dayton seems to think he can stop them somehow. He is so far to the left and so unwilling to compromise on anything he will never get anything done with this legislature. Is it possible to be a “lame duck” in your first year in office?

SW MN guy
Get your facts strait below you start mouthing off, Dayton is the only one that has been compromising on bills not the repubs, if you look at the bills and what has gone through the legislature Dayton is the one that has met them half way and when it comes for the repubs to meet half way they all say no, no, no and people are getting real tired of them not compromising and in 2012 they will be running scared right out of office if they don’t start compromising. There is absolutely no way that the repubs are going to cut the deficit without bringing in new revenue and that is by raising taxes on 5 % of people they couldn’t even come up with 5 billion in cuts when they first propose their cuts they only could come up with 1 billion at the time so why didn’t they cut 5 billion back then rather then say we will have our budget out the end of March because they are stalling because they don’t have the answer and trying to buy time with the people well the people are not dumb and can see right through them so they better be careful or they won’t be in office come 2012 and I can guarantee that.

You do not get it. You seem to think this spending spree is going to go on and on. People and government are going to have to live within their means. Suzie, the Republicans are in control, not governor Dayton. These Republican legislators were elected to restrain runaway government.

Take a deep breath of air Sue. You used only ONE PERIOD in your entire rant. Your anger is much more evident than your content.

Sue, compromising has gotten us into this mess… and the two-party-tango helped build this debt. There can be no deal making and no tax increases, it’s time to get small towns off the heroine that has them bound to the state and is holding hostage the Minnesota taxpayer. Police departments that grew for no reason during the Clinton years… except for the reason of growing the police departments, city halls that added positions during growth periods and haven’t made reductions, road projects for the sake of keeping city employees busy… the list goes on… it all must end, or we default. LGA is 10% of our budget problem, then lets bite the bullet and move on to the K-12 black hole that consumes money faster than you can dump it in there. How about HHS where the list of “programs” has grown exponentially for fifty years, also needs to be clipped like a leg with gangrene, off our body to save our body. This budget is easily balanced, we just need to get back to the basics of what “governments job” really is. We have strayed into areas where the state has no business being… remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This is just the beginning, Folks. Having a $14 trillion national debt actually means something. Cuts, cuts and more cuts are coming, not because anyone wants to, mind you, but because they have to. Next will come the tax increases, because that’s just how bad it is – and it really is that bad. We will get both cuts and tax increases. Anyone telling you otherwise is simply trying to keep their elected job. $14 trillion… The Pied Piper comes.

So how do you want to end the war on drugs? Get rid of drug task forces? Legalize drugs? Not trying to start a fight, I’m really asking. I think you make an interesting point, so I’m wondering what your solutions are.

Legalize the “drugs” that in most parts of the world have been decriminalized such as weed. Look into how much $ state and federal forces have to pay each month just for a weed. It is amazing when you add the jail time, police pay for just filing papers on this, and then all the court fees, etc. People need to wake up on issues like this as other parts of the world (and the country) have already done this and not only save a lot of $ but make a lot back from the taxes that come in from selling it.
They claim land of the free yet we have more laws on the books than any other “1st world” country. Just food for thought.

Drug war = epic fail. Since alcohol prohibition worked so well, let’s keep it going on marijuana. All this costs money & of course police & prison unions are against this. We can’t afford a war against a plant that is safer than alcohol & tobacco!

We’ll see how everyone likes it when the street lights are shut off at dark because cities can’t afford their electric bills, pot holes could swallow your car because cities can’t afford to have crews fill them, snow plows don’t go out, libraries and parks close, police and fire can’t respond quickly due to personnel cuts (if they can even afford gas to go out on patrol or maintenance on their vehicles), cities can’t afford maintenance workers to repair gas/water main breaks or repair traffic lights, etc. I’d almost like an entire city to shut down everything for a day just so people can see the real scope of what they’re asking. I agree that government spending needs to be reduced, but there are smart ways and stupid ways of doing it. It seems like our state is headed towards stupid.